Unique biodiversity in Arctic marine forests is shaped by diverse recolonization pathways and far northern glacial refugia.

ABSTRACT: The Arctic is experiencing a rapid shift toward warmer regimes, calling for a need to understand levels of biodiversity and ecosystem responses to climate cycles. This study presents genetic data for 109 Arctic marine forest species (seaweeds), which revealed contiguous populations extending from the Bering Sea to the northwest Atlantic, with high levels of genetic diversity in the east Canadian Arctic. One-fifth of the species sampled appeared restricted to Arctic waters. Further supported by hindcasted species distributions during the Last Glacial Maximum, we hypothesize that Arctic coastal systems were recolonized from many geographically disparate refugia leading to enriched diversity levels in the east Canadian Arctic, with important contributions stemming from northerly refugia likel

SUBMITTER: Bringloe TT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7486700 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature